Manage your subscription

DNA tests solve mystery of giant apes

By Emma Young and Adrian Barnett

ARE they a giant new species of great ape, or a hybrid of a chimp and a gorilla? The mysterious population of apes living in the remote north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the subject of a heated debate. Now genetic evidence and a comprehensive survey suggest that, despite their size and unusual behaviour, the apes belong to a recognised subspecies of chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii.

People living around the town of Bili, about 200 kilometres east of the Ebola river, have long swapped stories of ferocious apes with …